Apple faces high expectations for quarterly results today

Apple is set to announce its fiscal third quarter financial results today, and it’s facing some high expectations from Wall Street analysts.

The company said in April that it expected to bring in between $36 and $38 billion in revenue this quarter, and financial analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect that the company will report almost $38 billion in revenue. The consensus from a survey of professional and amateur analysts conducted by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt predicts revenue of $38.4 billion, above the company’s guidance.

Apple doesn’t provide earnings (profit) guidance any more, though the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters project that the company will report EPS of $1.23 a share. That will probably seem low compared to recent earnings figures from the company, but that’s because Apple stock underwent a 7-for-1 split in June. Adjusted for the split, the company reported earnings of $1.07 a share in its fiscal third quarter last year.

This quarter is usually ho-hum for Apple, since most shoppers aren’t running out to go buy an iPhone in May. But analysts have high hopes for Apple’s results because of the continuing expansion of the iPhone’s availability. In particular, Apple has started selling iPhones to customers of China Mobile and iPads with NTT DoCoMo, along with 49 other international carriers.

Apple is slated to release its earnings after the close of the market today, and will be holding a conference call to discuss its results at 2 p.m. Stay tuned to GeekWire for more coverage.

Blair Hanley Frank is GeekWire's Bay Area Correspondent. He has also worked for Macworld, PCWorld and TechHive. Follow him on Twitter @belril and email him at blair@geekwire.com.